Browse Best of SLO

Turn the faucets back on in Nipomo

Shell Beach

I am a landowner in Nipomo and am being refused water for an assisted living facility near Von's. After exhaustive research, I have come up with the following reliable facts:

Within a vast area of 384 square miles, 10 public water purveyors utilize portions of the same water aquifer. Of the 10, only one, the Nipomo Community Services District, has consistently claimed to have unsolvable water problems.

Last May, they placed a moratorium on new water meters. Any land owner in the middle of a building project, without an Intent to Serve Letter, will not be supplied water.

In 2008, after an 11-year court battle over water, Judge Jack Komar of the Santa Clara Superior Court directed technical engineers to form a group to report on the Nipomo Mesa Management Area (NMMA).

The judge assigned them to measure the ground water production from the basin every year and report the findings. These reports are posted on NCSD's home site.

For 2008, the NMMA report shows the measured and estimated groundwater production for the entire Mesa was 12,600 acre feet. The most recent NMMA report for 2011 shows the production reduced to 10,538 acre feet for the entire mesa. They pumped 2,062 acre feet of water less than in 2008. (An acre foot is one acre, one foot deep in water.)

Why did the NCSD place a moratorium on its district? Some people believe that the board is punishing the landowners for voting down a $26 million water pipeline, asking one district to pay for a pipeline that feeds an aquifer for water ultimately available to all mesa users.

The NCSD needs to remove the moratorium. Attend the NCSD board meeting on Wednesday, Sept. 26, at 9 a.m., at 148 South Wilson St., Nipomo.